How to Present Career Longevity on a Resume

Today's post is another question from a DailyWorth.com reader:

“I am 57 years old, and I'm concerned that my resume goes back too far and may be too long. When the high-tech company I worked for went under, I returned to school, got a master's degree in education and began teaching. I worked in the inner city for 10 years and finally burned out and left two years ago. Since then I have been working part-time in grant-funded positions, but want to go back to full-time work. How can I frame my varied experience on a resume and showcase my skills so it’s obvious that I will bring value to a new employer?”

Great question, and the first thing to understand is that you aren’t creating one resume, but many resumes. Especially if you are applying for jobs that involve different types of roles in different fields, you must customize your resume for each open position. The main way to do this is by including the language in the job description.

For instance, if an advertisement requests someone who uses “creative training methods,” make sure you incorporate that exact phrase on your resume for that job. The employer’s applicant tracking system is programmed to hunt for the words in the job description, so putting them in usually ensures your resume will be looked at by an actual human.

You don’t mention whether you’re trying to break into a new field or not; but, either way, look closely at the job description to determine how to list your experience. Since you’ve had a long career, presumably you’ve acquired critical transferable skills such as project management, client relations and sales. Note any skills mentioned in the ad, put those front and center on your resume and don’t forget to add bullets demonstrating how you applied those skills and how your efforts concretely affected the bottom line.

To address your first point, if you are listing every position you’ve held since you graduated from college, your resume may indeed be too long. Depending on the role you’re going after, remove jobs that are irrelevant — or only slightly relevant — to the new position. 

For example, if you are applying for a job in a Fortune 500 company as a VP of training and development, your teaching jobs may be a better fit than your grant-funded job. Your resume should be concise while also telling a coherent story. Your career, just like life in general, might be a bit muddled — but your job as a great resume writer is not to let that show. 

Finally, working well into your sixties and seventies is a reality for most employees today and organizations should feel lucky to get a seasoned Boomer, but nevertheless, age discrimination does exist. For this reason, I’d encourage you not to advertise your age on your resume. Don’t include the date you graduated from college, and if possible, highlight jobs from the last 15-20 years. Refer to sample resumes from your field(s) online to ensure that you are up-to-date with the most current presentation of information. 

 

Comments

[Dan Edwards]

Thanks Alexandra for sharing this. You are right when you said one's resume must be customized to meet a particular job that one has qualification and experience for. For that reason one would have to create several resumes for different job positions.

[Liz]

Could you please tell more about applicant tracking systems? What search methods they use or how Database works?

[Md Jahid Hossain]

Fantastic post – thanks for the tips, they are really useful.This is true to win the competition it is very important to update the resume. If you are seeking for secrets to writing an impressive resume that makes you stand out in your job application. You can start making use of new resume samples 2015 on http://www.resume2015.net to revamp your application and to become your inspiration in trying to win a job this year.

[Andrew Chapman]

Great post that addresses the issues very well. However, I think your suggestion of leaving off graduation dates — while a good idea — is unrealistic as a solution.

Nearly every professional in her/his 40s and up has a social-media presence that gives away her/his age, and it only takes a few minutes for an intrepid employer to find this (and they look). A 10-minute search on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as the "people finder" type sites, will lead to photos and data of the candidate that will provide an approximate age, if not an exact birth date. Alumni pages, membership sites, yearbooks online... all of this helps give it away.

So, I think anyone 40+ years old needs to accept this reality, embrace their age (aka, experience), and not try to hide it. If an organization will not consider you due to your age, you probably wouldn't want to work there anyhow.

[TalentNow]

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optimize & track their recruitment process.

More info @ https://www.talentnow.com/applicant-tracking-system/